Gabapentin (AGAIN!)
 

Hi,

I have been taking 100 mg Gabapentin for the past month or so. Pdoc said I could raise the Gabapentin to 400 mgs whenever I wanted.

Monday night I decided to ramp up the dose to about one and one thirds capsule -- perhaps 130 mgs. I fell asleep before I could go to bed. . . . .I took a nap while sitting at the computer and now I am awake again.

This is so weird.
I have to come up with a way to deal with how I handle raising the dose.

M

UGH

After that one hour and fifteen minute little sleep I had around two o'clock I have not been able to get to bed.

So frustrating. My whole night / day is a mess and I am doing the best I can not to be depressed about this.

M

Is that neurontin? is it halping with your depression? is that why you are trying it?
bizi

Gabapentin / Neurontin
 

Hi, Bizi, :)

I have been on the Gabapentin / Neurontin for a year. It helps with anxiety. I try to raise the dose but the sleepy side effects are difficult.

Twice I have tried to raise the dose. This is my third time.

M

good luck and I am glad it helps with your anxiety, wish it would help more.
bizi

It's very difficult to figure out how to take these powerful medications. I take seroquel,and have sleepy side affects with it also. It takes affect immediately. It's very difficult to know what to do. It does help me with my condition though. BF:hug::hug::hug:

:confused:
Hi,

This is such a mess. My sleep gets worse as the dose goes up.
I am so frustrated, depressed, and very sleep deprived.


M

I am sorry....(((((HUGS))))
bizi
maybe this will level out with time...neurontin does have some mood stabilizing effect for some folks. sorry that you are so sleep deprived.

two ideas, and pdoc
 

Mari i can think of 2 things to try:

1. you could try splitting the dose, initially till you get used to it. take the 100 mg when you normally would. then take the "extra" 30ish mg at least 8 hours away from it. i figure even in the morning if you're used to 100 and that doesn't make you real sleepy, then 30mg alone should not make you sleepy.

---- OR ----

2. since you KNOW it's going to knock you out for now, you could try setting up for it. go to bed, take drug, put on cpap and lie down. you may find you sleep a little longer than you do slumped at a desk. and it will be better sleep with the cpap.

-------------------------

whatever you do, if the problem with the deprivation hits the week mark i'd call pdoc, tell him what you are doing and ask him for advice.

you don't want to insist on something needlessly when he might have some good ideas on how to help you manage the titration. on the other hand, he may tell you mission abort before you hurt yourself too much. either way, i'd not wait past 7 days to call him, barring a dramatic improvement.

good luck. i'm real sorry you're having such a hard time.

sending lots of hugs :hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:

~ waves ~

Hi,
This is what I am taking

July 15 Sunday 100 mgs (1 capsule)
July 16 Monday 130 mgs approx (1 1/3 capsule)
July 17 Tuesday 130 mgs approx (1 1/3 capsule)
July 18 Wednesday 175 mgs approx (one capsule and most of a second)
July 19 Thursday 200 mgs (two capsules)

The med is not really knocking me out. It makes me fall asleep for a short time. Wednesday night I fell asleep early for about 15 mins while watching tv around midnight and did not get back to sleep until 7:30 am with the help of some Klonopin.


I suppose that this is good news that Thursday I did not feel groggy or brainfogged -- mostly tired perhaps from not sleeping. . . also maybe a little sleepy.

->I need enough days at a decent dose to help with anxiety. --- not sure what the decent dose is.
->I would welcome some relief of depression and nerve pain too but those might require higher doses than I am willing to deal with.


M

Thank you, Waves.
 

Waves,

The sensible thing to do would be to take the meds, put on the cpap mask, and lie down in bed. I felt the med kicking in very late tonight. Maybe I should keep better track of when it "kicks in" as a sleepy med.

I will call pdoc if I need to. promise. I thought of calling him for something like Ambien. I do not know what he would say.
When I last saw him and asked for a back up for a problem with sleep, he said to take more of the Gabapentin --- he wrote the script for 4 capsules per day.

M

thoughts
 

Hi Mari

yes i understood it makes you fall asleep for a short time. my observation was that you were "crashing out" inadvertently and it was probably not quality sleep. might as well make it quality sleep, if possible... and in a different situation you might sleep longer, was my thought (perhaps wrong).

ok, anyway, just now when i saw your other post listing your recent titration what jumped to mind is that you are going too fast.

i would step the dose up by a week at a time. i'm not kidding. it's not usually necessary for gabapentin, but then, people aren't usually as sensitive to the drug as you are. imho, that needs to be taken into consideration wrt titration as well.

i understand you "need" results .... and i've seen you do what i felt was "jumping the gun" on other meds (my opinion of course, forgive me if i am out of place saying so) but if as you say the primary side effect of stepping up is sleep deprivation, then all the more reason to go slowly.

sleep deprivation will only work against you -- it will produce more anxiety, tend to increase all types of pain sx you might have, decrease concentration etc etc i'm sure you are all too aware... or then again perhaps not. i wonder if you get sleep deprived so often and have been for so long that you've begun to see some of the sx as primary issues rather than ascribing them to the sleep deprivation.

anyway. my point is i would slow the titration to a 30ish mg per week. ;)

~ waves ~

I woke up because a guy from the electric company came here to install a heavy duty professional surge protector at the base of our meter.

Whenever the lights go out our electric fire alarm makes a chirp.


NOISES. :eek: :rolleyes: :eek:

I am going to go back to sleep and reply later.


Mari

anxious about work deadlines.
 

Hi, Waves

I did not get back to sleep in the afternoon and have not gone back to bed. I do not have any idea what is going on. I feel depressed.


See, I did not know that until you pointed this out. Gabapentin helps with sleep less than anything else in the world.

That is exactly what was happening.

That is right.

I know. And you sort of said something along these lines the last time I put myself through this.

Friday night I took 200 mgs (two capsules) for the second night in a row. . . Mostly it is hard to work with the capsules. I need a scale or some tool.

I do not remember doing this with other meds. For those other meds, I took this as prescribed. The Gabapentin I have been playing with for 13 or 14 months now. I am ok with taking your word for it because I feel really messed up right now.
Here is the thing. while I am titrating I am getting depressed and missing sleep and getting nothing done. I have a list as long as my arm that I have to get done by August 13 when we return to people and meetings and more expectations on top of what I already have in my hand.
Oh heavens, I am so freaked out about having my work done on time.
Just before I posted this, emailed a request for a phone appointment with Work Buddy. Two weeks ago, I put out a distress call for phone help and then we talked almost two hours and I felt better about my stuff I am trying to get done.

I crammed before that call. . .worked all night for two nights . . . He helped tremendously. He enthusiastically offered suggestions, gave me lots of ideas, told me what I had so far would work, reminded me to be realistic, . . .
That was eight days ago and I feel stuck again. I do not know how to get progress on that particular project without him.


I am aware. I have some logic for this. I cannot remember what it is, but the plan (HA!) made sense for a moment.

This seems insightful but I do not understand. Maybe you can explain it to me.

I really hope that after three nights of this dose, I will settle in. Maybe I can stay at that 200 mg dose for a week or more before considering titatrating a little more.

PLEASE recognize that I am very appreciative of your help.
I suppose that my replies show that either 1 I am not thinking clearly or 2 I am thinking clearly but have a not so good plan.

M

for what it is worth, it sounds like you are thinking clearly. enlist work buddies help again....there is no reason not to ask for help, he would help you anytime you need it...it seems.
bizi

Dear Bizi, :)

Thank you for telling me that I am thinking clearly. I worry about that.

M

Dear Mari
 

Dear Mari

sorry i was out for a while... mostly just busy. thought about how to explain taking "sleep deprivation for granted" but you said right above that that you are aware of it so sounds like that point was not applicable. (it was my... what if you are not aware... you said you are.)

200. ok. well. if you're coping... maybe i was wrong about you stepping up too fast.

i agree with Bizi about enlisting work buddy's help.

good luck with the step up. i understand splitting pills is hard and my recommendation on that was and still is to split into half capsules for regularity, if split you must. not divvy up further.

i don't think i have more advice on this.

good luck. :hug::hug::hug:

waves

Thanks, Waves. :)

I appreciate your experience with this and other medications. I could not deal with these meds by myself.

M

how is it going? How are you?
bizi

Thanks.
 

Hi,

I noticed yesterday that my depression seemed to have lifted (first day I was not crying). I am not sure about the anxiety.
That means that twelve days at 200 mgs helped the depression.
I will wait three or four weeks before deciding to raise the dose again.

Labor Day weekend is a good time to raise the dose again if I feel that I need it.

M

I am also taking Gabapentin for RSD/CRPS, basically nerve pain. I was on 300 mg a day for about 1 month to start. It helped the pain, but yes I had those wonderful sleepy periods out of nowhere and then sleeplessness. I had to up the dose because the pain was getting worse and slowly over about 1 week I went from 300 mg a day to 900 mg a day. Its been about 1 month now that I have been on 900 mg a day and find that it take about that time for my body to adjust to the dose, but it does get better. I tried Lyrica, but too many side effects, dizzinezz, spinning, swelling, so I was taken off. Also the Gabapentin at first made me very clumsy. I fell three to four times within the first 3 days of starting it and then again when I increased my dose. But again, this decreased and then completely got better after my body adjusted. So my suggestion is to gradually increase the dose and keep taking the higher dose, hopefully you will adjust as your body get use to the higher dose, but you will have to get through this to get leveled out. Best of luck.